Engagement with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is the consensus among elite opinion and certainly among the ranks of North American Middle East studies academics, the "experts" tasked with informing the public and, often, policy-makers on foreign policy in the region. Since the Egyptian revolution, these academics have whitewashed the Muslim Brotherhood, downplayed its Islamist agenda, and urged U.S. cooperation—a policy suggestion the Obama administration has clearly taken to heart. Many have been shocked by the speed with which the Obama administration has pursued this policy of outreach. The current debate within Congress about the potential influence of the Muslim Brotherhood on...

A San Francisco woman interrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday. Check out the video here of Code Pinker Rae Abileah's interruption -- and turn the volume up WAY high, because you can barely hear her say, "Stop Israeli war crimes." The Pinkers describe the Half Moon Bay native as "a young Jewish American of Israeli descent" who now lives in SF. Netanyahu briefly paused as Capitol law enforcement removed Abileah. He followed up with an ad lib about how great it was to be in a "real democracy" where folks can freely...

On CNN earlier this week, American Edward Peck, an activist who sailed with the Free Gaza Movement flotilla, asserted, "The purpose of the movement was humanitarian." Sorry, but the video of so-called peace activists clubbing Israeli soldiers and tossing one onto a lower deck didn't exactly exude the Kumbaya spirit to me. While Peck argued that the flotilla was not "hostile," its goal was provocative - to break Israel's military embargo against Hamas. Activists knew they were taunting a standing army. They also knew they couldn't lose. Israel already delivers food and other relief to the Gaza Strip. As for...

San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón has been on an apology tour this week after making controversial remarks about terrorism and Middle Easterners - and the dustup is likely to lead to changes in the Police Department and at City Hall. Gascón reportedly said last week the Hall of Justice is susceptible to a terrorist attack by members of the city's Middle Eastern community parking a van in front of it and blowing it up.Despite reports to the contrary from people in attendance, Gascón said he never lumped all Middle Easterners or Arab Americans together, but instead referred to people...

WASHINGTON - A small band of determined women raised their voices against America's most powerful political lobby—the Israel lobby—and they got their point across. When Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres began speaking to the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference at the Washington Convention Center May 4 six members of CODEPINK Women for Peace raised banners saying “Want Peace? End the Occupation,” “What About Gaza?” and “No Money for War Crimes.” The next day, when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden began addressing the AIPAC meeting, another pair of CODEPINK members disrupted his speech. Each day, as the activists—some...

This space doesn’t usually take requests, but when my 94-year-old mother calls up and insists, it’s hard to say no. What she wanted when she called last week is not hard to come up with, after all: a forthright denunciation of the Obama administration’s apparent plan to let the torturers and their instigators off the hook. Thinking people everywhere (I’m one of them) have rushed to their keyboards to do their best to make sure the current government doesn’t get away with letting their predecessors get off scot free. MoveOn is on their case to make sure they don’t forget....

BERKELEY — The U.S Marine Corps Recruiting Center, which has been the target of protests for the past 18 months, was badly damaged by vandals Wednesday night, the eve of the 6th anniversary of the Iraq war. Today, broken windows are boarded up with sheets of plywood at the recruitment center in downtown Berkeley. CodePink and other anti-war groups picketed in front of the Marine recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Square in downtown Berkeley since the fall of 2007. The groups say the Marines do not belong in liberal Berkeley and they should find a new spot for their center....

Protests greet Bush's first speech as ex-president Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:00pm EDT CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - More than 100 protesters chanted "war criminal" and flung shoes in Calgary on Tuesday, angry that former U.S. President George W. Bush was in the Canadian city to give his first speech since leaving the White House. At least two demonstrators were hauled away by police after brief skirmishes, as 1,500 business people in the oil patch city waited outside a convention center for an hour to pass through tight security and enter the C$400-a-plate ($315) luncheon. Media were barred from the invitation-only...

The public is likely to get its first close look at the Obama administration's policies on torture, secrecy and prisoners' rights in a San Francisco courtroom today, when federal judges press a government lawyer for a position on the practice known as extraordinary rendition. Five men - one now imprisoned in Egypt, one in Morocco, one at Guantanamo Bay and two who have been released without charges - are asking the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate a lawsuit that accuses a San Jose flight-planning company of helping the CIA transport them to overseas dungeons for interrogation and...

SAN FRANCISCO -- More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested today outside the Israeli Consulate and the Federal Building in San Francisco, venting anger over Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrators assembled about 8 a.m. at the intersection of Market and Montgomery streets, then protested outside the consulate, at 456 Montgomery, before heading up Market toward the Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue. Traffic was stopped at several intersections. Police on foot and on motorcycles monitored protesters but made no arrests. Many protesters carried Palestinian flags, were draped in checkered Palestinian head scarves and carried anti-Israel signs, such...

Three Democratic senators demanded "bare-minimum" civil rights protections Tuesday for Americans who might be targeted in FBI national security investigations without any evidence of wrongdoing. In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the senators also urged the Justice Department to delay still-tentative rules that would expand FBI powers to seek out potential terrorists. They said the new policy could allow surveillance of Muslim- or Arab-Americans based, in part, on their race, ethnicity or religion. "The Justice Department's actions over the last eight years have alienated many Americans, especially Arab and Muslim Americans," wrote Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold...

SAN FRANCISCO - -- Protesters briefly clashed with San Francisco police several times today as officers tried to clear Market Street of hundreds of demonstrators marking the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. More than 50 people had been arrested by lunch time in incidents at several downtown locations. In the most recent scuffle, about 80 police in riot helmets and carrying billy clubs surrounded about two dozen demonstrators staging a die-in at Market and New Montgomery streets. The protesters laid in the street around 12:15 p.m., blocking traffic. At least two demonstrators were wrestled to the...

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The U.N. Human Rights Council has condemned Israel's offensive in Gaza and called on Palestinians to stop rocket fire into Israel. The resolution passed Thursday said Israeli incursions into the Palestinian territory inflicted collective punishment on the civilian population. Israel launched the offensive last week in response to Palestinian militants barraging southern Israel with rockets.

The proliferation of dubious conferences on "academic freedom" continues unabated. And, in each case, biased and politicized Middle East studies academics are a major component.In October, 2007, the University of Chicago hosted, "In Defense of Academic Freedom," an event whose unifying theme was "the notion that Jewish groups have degraded the quality and breadth of discussion in the media and in Washington." Hardly the stuff of self-described progressives, but such is the state of discourse in the corridors of academia today. Then there was the "DePaul Academic Freedom Conference" earlier this month. It featured the usual suspects, all alleging "academic...

SFGate printed a rebuttal from CAIR to my column, "Savage vs. CAIR: The Battle over Free Speech" today titled, "Free Speech vs. Hate Speech." It consists of the usual CAIR talking points and obfuscation and the author, CAIR-San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director Safaa Ibrahim, demonstrates a marked lack of understanding (whether purposeful or not) of the concept of free speech. In addition, she doesn't disprove any of the allegations made in my article. And, if the reader comments are any indication, the American public isn't buying it. Update (1/5): Conservatarian weighs in on CAIR's "dissimulation" here and Douglas Hagmann...

Cinnamon Stillwell's recent column in SF Gate, "Savage vs. CAIR: The battle over free speech" on Dec. 19 offers a holiday assortment of misleading truths and omissions of facts. In her misguided defense of the "Savage Nation" radio show, Stillwell essentially defends anarchistic hate against minority groups including African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims, Catholics, Jews, immigrants and women. She does so under the pretense of defending free speech. Of course, most elementary school students will tell you that hate speech is not to be confused with free speech. CAIR, the California Council of Churches, Rabbi Haim Dov Beilak and other...

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and two other senior members of the House Judiciary Committee have called for the immediate opening of impeachment hearings for Vice President Richard Cheney.Baldwin and fellow Democrats Robert Wexler of Florida and Luis Gutierrez of Illinois on Friday distributed a statement, "A Case for Hearings," that declares, "The issues at hand are too serious to ignore, including credible allegations of abuse of power that if proven may well constitute high crimes and misdemeanors under our Constitution. The charges against Vice President Cheney relate to his deceptive actions leading up to the Iraq war, the revelation...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate's No. 2 Democrat on Friday asked the Justice Department to investigate whether the CIA obstructed justice by destroying videotapes that documented the harsh 2002 interrogations of two alleged terrorists. A day after CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden told agency employees the tapes were destroyed in 2005, members of Congress, human rights groups and lawyers for accused terrorists said the tapes may have been key evidence that the U.S. government had illegally authorized torture. In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois asked for a probe of "whether CIA...

Earlier this year, the Center for Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. It was founded in 1957 by Gustave E. Von Grunebaum, a scholar at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute and the first president of the Middle East Studies Association. Grunebaum sought to establish at UCLA a groundbreaking Middle East and Islamic Studies program featuring an array of experts in languages, culture, and history. Unfortunately, the best-known UCLA professors specializing in the region today, far from embodying the classical approach to the discipline in which knowledge is the overriding goal, exemplify...

As part of the "Islam Awareness Week" currently taking place at the University of Pennsylvania, a discussion titled, "Don't Believe the Hype: How the Media and Hollywood Portray Muslims and their Faith" will take place on October 24. Looking at the description of the event, it's clear that the usual platitudes about "Islamophobia," "racism," and "misconceptions" will be employed to mask the need for honest examination and, ultimately, reform in combating Islamism: This event will seek to address the way Western media has created an unwarranted sense of fear towards Muslims. This speaker panel will address the heavy-hitting issue of...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- After weeks of suggesting Democrats would temper their approach to Iraq legislation in a bid to attract more Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared abruptly Tuesday that he had no plans to do so. The Democratic leader said he will call for a vote this month on several anti-war proposals, including one by Sen. Carl Levin that would insist President Bush end U.S. combat next summer. The proposals would be mandatory and not leave Bush wiggle room, said Reid, D-Nev. "There (are) no goals. It's all definite timelines," he told reporters of the planned legislation. Levin,...

"Dubbed "Operation Eagle Justice," the GOE events will start with a rally on the National Mall and conclude with a counter-demonstration along the ANSWER march route. "As ANSWER and their allies in the hate-America crowd will stumble by, we will treat them to some good old-fashioned, red-blooded American 'free speech,'" the group says on its Web site."

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Twenty retired federal judges, two rear admirals and a Marine general joined 383 current or former members of the European and British parliaments on Friday in urging the Supreme Court to grant detainees at Guantanamo Bay full access to the U.S. court system. Lower court rulings supporting the Bush administration's opposition to full court access "were seized upon by repressive governments as a license to incarcerate their own citizens and others with impunity," 25 retired American diplomats wrote in one court filing. In June, the Supreme Court agreed to take the detainees' case, reversing a decision in...

Members at S.F. convention reject banning presence at suspects' questioning -- After a raucous debate about what role - if any -- psychologists should play in U.S. government interrogations of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, the American Psychological Association voted overwhelmingly today to reject a measure that would have banned its members from those interrogations. Instead, the association passed a competing measure that reaffirms the organization's position against torture "and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of terror suspects. For the first time on record, the resolution lists specific treatment that the association opposes, including mock executions, water-boarding,...

AS THE saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." It may be catchy, but history has shown its peril as foreign policy. It's now the risky strategy U.S. commanders are following in arming Sunni fighters who pledge to hunt down al Qaeda guerrillas in Iraq. Given lackluster results with a surge of 30,000 new troops, the American military is gambling on a new tactic. It's running guns, ammunition and supplies to one foe in hopes it will go after another. The aim is to equip Sunni forces, who have turned on al Qaeda ranks responsible for a...

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Prosecutors on Friday appealed a judge's decision to charge three U.S. soldiers with homicide in the death of a Spanish journalist in Iraq, a court official said. Prosecutors at the National Court said the troops from the U.S. 3rd Infantry, based in Fort Stewart, Ga., committed no crime when their tank fired a shell at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel in 2003, killing Jose Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish television network Telecinco, and Taras Portsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters. The prosecutors characterized the attack as an accident of war, said a court official who spoke on...

When a deputy assistant secretary for the Defense Department blasted U.S. law firms for representing prisoners at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the Pentagon was quick to say that his comments did not reflect the "thinking of its leadership." For his part, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was quick to say that "good lawyers representing the detainees is the best way to ensure that justice is done in these cases." The deputy apologized, saying that he believed that "a foundational principle of our legal system is that the system works best when both sides are represented by competent legal counsel." He then...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seventy-five lawyers for nearly 400 Guantanamo Bay detainees urged Congress on Tuesday to give the prisoners access to U.S. courts. Fanning out across Capitol Hill for private meetings with senators and House members, the attorneys are seeking legislation to overturn a section of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that stripped the detainees of court access. Under last year's law, the detainees are entitled to a procedural review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia into whether they were properly designated unlawful enemy combatants.

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Anti-war legislation on the way to President Bush for his promised veto represents a rare rebuke by Congress of a large and ongoing ground conflict, even eclipsing challenges made during the Vietnam War. While a bill ordering troops home from an ongoing military mission is not unprecedented — legislation aimed at conflicts in Somalia and Haiti are other examples — the Iraq bill is an unusually swift feat by a Congress forcefully challenging a war involving thousands of U.S. troops. "Congress is not shy usually about attempting to create problems for a president when a war becomes...

PORT HADLOCK - Two Jefferson County residents were arrested Saturday outside the entrance gates of Naval Magazine Indian Island as 16 people brandished cardboard signs - and one spilled marinara sauce to symbolize blood - to protest Thursday's arrival of the nuclear-powered submarine USS Ohio at the munitions base. Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies arrested Liz Rivera Goldstein, 49, of Port Townsend, and Bethel Alice Prescott, 46, of Irondale, on investigation of disorderly conduct when they blocked the entrance to the base after a five-minute warning to clear the way expired at about 2 p.m. Both women face a charge of...

IN NOVEMBER, US Airways kicked six imams off a plane bound for Phoenix from Minneapolis. According to news reports, passengers and crew had become spooked watching some of the imams pray by the gate, then after boarding, saw the imams move around the plane as they spoke in Arabic -- some said the imams spoke of Saddam Hussein, which the imams deny. They said that the imams also and requested seat-belt extenders -- heavy metal objects -- which some feared could be used as weapons. The imams then were questioned and released without being charged. Last month, the imams filed...

Islamic countries pushed through a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council on Friday urging a global prohibition on the public defamation of religion, a response largely to the furor last year over caricatures published in a Danish newspaper of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. The statement proposed by the Organization of Islamic Conference addressed what it called a "campaign" against Muslim minorities and the Islamic religion around the world since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The resolution, which was opposed by European and a number of other non-Muslim countries, "expresses deep concern at attempts to...

While all the attention is focused on Iraq in Congress, an escalating war of words and new military actions have proceeded apace on Iran. The possibilities for provocation and missteps leading to military confrontation are increasing. The U.S. Navy now has two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf, and is conducting war games involving 15 warships, more than 100 planes and more than 10,000 troops. Iran has been conducting frequent maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman and test-firing land-to-sea missiles. Iran last week captured 15 British sailors and marines that it accused of straying into...

Prisoners who endure poor or degrading treatment suffer much of the same long-term psychological distress as do captives who are tortured, suggests a study published Monday. The study was based on interviews with victims of ill treatment and torture while imprisoned in the former Yugoslavia, and experts said the findings underscored the need for a broader definition of torture. "What is the basis for the distinction between torture and other cruel and degrading treatment? Science should inform this debate," the study's lead author, Metin Basoglu of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London, told The Associated Press in...

A human rights group is asking President Bush to disclose the fates of all terror suspects held since 2001, including at least 16 it believes have been locked up in secret CIA facilities. Human Rights Watch said it compiled a report about the 16, whose whereabouts are unknown, along with 22 others possibly held by the CIA, based on interviews with former detainees, press reports and other sources. The report — "Ghost Prisoner: Two Years in Secret CIA Detention" — includes an accounting from Marwan Jabour, a Palestinian who says he was held incommunicado for more than two years by...

Defense officials slammed UNIFIL and the Lebanese government Monday night, claiming that their "slackness" was what enabled Hizbullah to plant five deadly explosive devices along the border between Israel and Lebanon. IDF officials said it was possible that the bombs were planted as part of a planned kidnapping attack similar to the July 12 abduction of reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser that sparked the war this past summer. Defense Minister Amir Peretz transmitted a harsh-worded message to UNIFIL command in Lebanon and urged the peacekeeping force to crack down on Hizbullah and prevent the guerrilla group from returning to...

(AP) WASHINGTON -- Opponents of the war in Iraq want their protest on the National Mall to launch a nationwide movement to bring the troops home. Demonstrators chartered buses, bought plane tickets and filled their gas tanks to join Saturday's rally, and hundreds of them planned to flood congressional offices Monday to lobby for a troop withdrawal. Plans call for rallies across the country and visits to members of Congress when they return home to their districts. United for Peace and Justice, a coalition group sponsoring the protest, said there has been intense interest in the rally since President Bush...

San Francisco -- A coalition of San Francisco lawyers is asking the California State Bar to investigate whether a Bush administration official violated legal ethics when he called for a boycott of law firms that represent Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Bar Association of San Francisco announced Thursday it wanted an investigation into the conduct of Charles "Cully" Stimson, a deputy defense secretary for detainee affairs and member of the California State Bar. On Jan. 11, Stimson told a radio audience that he was outraged that big law firms were assisting Guantanamo Bay detainees. He called for the boycott of firms...

A year after President Bush confirmed the government was eavesdropping on Americans' electronic communications without warrants, the practice continues unabated and legal experts say efforts to limit the program by a new Congress could trigger a constitutional showdown. High-ranking Democrats set to take control of both chambers are already mulling ways to curb the eavesdropping program Bush secretly authorized a month after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the White House argues the Constitution gives the president wartime powers to eavesdrop that he wouldn't have during times of peace, even in the face of existing legislation that some scholars and lawmakers...

Sacramento peace protesters were targeted by a widespread domestic spying operation in which the Pentagon monitored anti-war groups across the country, newly released government documents show. The documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and made public Tuesday, detail entries made into the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notice database dating back to November 2004, when two local groups protested at the Military Entrance Processing Station on Rosin Court in North Sacramento. The revelation adds more fuel to the ongoing debate over governmental spying on citizens critical of the war in Iraq. It is the latest in a series...

Franklin Roosevelt had his first hundred days. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is thinking 100 hours, time enough, she says, to begin to "drain the swamp" after more than a decade of Republican rule. As in the first 100 hours the House meets after Democrats — in her fondest wish — win control in the Nov. 7 midterm elections and Pelosi takes the gavel as the first Madam Speaker in history. Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation." Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist...

Anaheim, Calif. -- A powerful Republican Party operative who earlier this week accused a Muslim City Council candidate of supporting Islamic extremists on Thursday challenged the Syrian-born man to a debate on his views of Hezbollah and the Middle East. The challenge from former state GOP chairman Shawn Steel came the same day that more than a half-dozen elected officials and civic and religious leaders rallied behind the candidate, Belal "Bill" Dalati, on the steps of City Hall. A letter Steel wrote accusing Dalati of helping sponsor an anti-Israel rally and associating with "zany left wing groups" has circulated on...

A Democratic congresswoman on Wednesday cited the case of an Iraqi Associated Press photographer imprisoned by the U.S. military during debate on a prisoner treatment bill that she considers too harsh. In a House speech, Rep. Louise Slaughter referred to Bilal Hussein, who has been detained in Iraq for more than five months. "He was accused of aiding and abetting the insurgency, but he has yet to be charged with any crime," said Slaughter, D-N.Y. She noted that the AP has demanded that Hussein either be released or charged so that he can be turned over to the Iraqi court...

The U.S. government has rejected a prominent Muslim scholar's application to enter the country on the grounds that he donated several hundred dollars to French and Swiss groups that provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians, a civil rights group announced Monday. Tariq Ramadan learned that his visa application was rejected last week, three months after a judge ordered the government to decide whether he can enter the country to speak before groups that had invited him, the American Civil Liberties Union said. The Bush administration contends the French and Swiss groups, which the ACLU said are legitimate charities, gave funds to...

SAN FRANCISCO -- About 40 peace activists, many of them dressed in pink and flashing peace signs, slowed traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge this morning and got into minor clashes with police. No one was arrested during the hour-and-a-half protest -- organized by the anti-war group Code Pink as part of International Peace Day -- but bridge authorities did confiscate signs and banners they said would distract drivers and slow traffic even more. There were also two minor collisions on the northbound side of the highway during the protest, which began at 8 a.m., according to Golden Gate...

Even on the very day of 9/11, this is what you get from DU moonbats: Dangerman (837 posts) Mon Sep-11-06 11:44 AM Original message I'm going to have a hellish night tonight. I am working at a local sports arena tonight and there will be a pre-game speech about "We are going to win the war on terror." and some patriotic songs and that song "God Bless America" in the bottom of the 7th. The last two 9/11s when I work there, I started shouting "bull!" and felt like I am going to tantrum. Why they are still going some...

From the Orange County Register online: [Congressman Dana] Rohrabacher has supported the Bush administration on the war in Iraq. Then, the protesters started shouting: "Bring them home! Now!" As the pitch rose, the congressman ran out of his grey stucco home. He was barefoot. "You just woke my babies!" Rohrabacher said. He and his wife, Rhonda, have 2-year-old triplets. Rohrabacher said he was on his back porch when he heard crying over a baby monitor. "I am going to get all of you arrested if you don't leave right now." "My son is in Iraq!" responded Tim Kahlor, 48, whose...

A FEDERAL judge Thursday reaffirmed one of the Constitution's most cherished principles: No one, even the president of the United States, is above the law. In striking down the National Security Agency's warrantless-surveillance program, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor suggested it not only violated the rights of free speech and privacy -- it intruded on the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution. "The public interest is clear in this matter," she wrote in her 43-page opinion. "It is the upholding of the Constitution." Our government has the ability to pursue terrorists with all due aggressiveness without shredding the...

An article in a leading Norwegian newspaper last weekend lambasted Israel and Judaism and said Israel has lost its right to exist in its present form. Entitled "God's chosen people," the article by author Jostein Gaarder in Aftenposten is raising a storm in Norway. Gaarder, author of the book "Sophie's World," links the Israel Defense Forces' acts in Lebanon to Jewish history and foresees the coming dismantling of the state as it exists today, with the Jews becoming refugees. In an interview with Haaretz Gaarder said Thursday that he was misunderstood. "As John Kennedy declared in Germany 'I am a...